🐙 Cell & Organismal Biology
Common Feather Star
The common feather star (Florometra serratissima) is a large feather star of the cold northeastern Pacific, which forms dense aggregations on rocky bottoms from Alaska to California.
The common feather star (Florometra serratissima) is a large feather star of the cold northeastern Pacific, which forms dense aggregations on rocky bottoms from Alaska to California.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Common Feather Star in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Deuterostomia lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Meadows of Feather Stars
In places with strong currents, such as Puget Sound and British Columbia fjords, thousands of animals cover the rocks with arms held up to the flow, a striking sight to divers.
Large and Many-Armed
It has some twenty arms, each up to about 15 centimeters long. Young stars stay on a stalk before becoming free-living.
Part of a Cold Reef Community
Feather stars share the habitat with sponges and anemones. See Cloud Sponge.
Common Feather Star at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Florometra serratissima |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Echinodermata |
| Class | Crinoidea |
| Order | Comatulida |
| Family | Antedonidae |
| Field Guide group | Deuterostomia: Echinodermata (Sea Stars & Allies) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Ten long orange feathery arms on a small disc that grips the seafloor with claw-like cirri; swims off by waving its arms when a predatory sea star approaches. |
| Class | Crinoidea |
| Range | Northeastern Pacific |
See Also
- Rosy Feather Star — an Atlantic feather star
- Cloud Sponge — a neighbor in cold Pacific reefs
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